Slipping by Degrees
Text: 1 Samuel 13:5-14, 1 Samuel 15:1-35
OPEN WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING
One of the saddest things to see, at least to me, is someone who - by all appearances seemed to be a Christian, fall into sin and apostasy. Not let me make that clear… I said, someone who “seemed” to be a Christian. I’ve seen this happen a couple of times in my life. Someone who started the race well, but then deviated from the straight and narrow path, and ended up destroying themselves, and making shipwreck of their faith.
So today we’re going to be looking at one of the clearest examples from Scripture of this, and then we’re going to ask the Lord to search our hearts, and do what 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us we should do, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, you fail to meet the test.”
SO if you will, please open up your Bibles to 1 Samuel 13, and follow along as I read from God’s Word (READ 1 Samuel 13:5-14).
Now there we have it… a guy who seemed like he was going to be a great king. A great example to follow. King Saul. When he became king he had two years of peace. It looked like he was going to be successful. He then mustered an army and went to war against the enemies of Israel, just as God had told Joshua to do many years before, and it looked – at least initially, like Saul was the guy God was going to work through and bless. But when you stand against the enemies of God, and against the enemies of God’s people – they tend to not like that so much, and they tend to get mobilized in order to take you out. That was true back in Biblical times, and it’s true today. Sinners don’t want to be told that they are sinning. They don’t want to be told that they are in opposition to God. They want to do what they want to do, and believe that there will be no repercussions or judgment. And, so as King Saul begins to upset the status quo, and rock the boat, the Philistines join forces and mass an army of 30 thousand chariots, and 6 thousand horsemen – and troops, and they go to box in Saul and his men.
Now think about this for a second. Saul is vastly outnumbered. He’s only got about 2,000 men… Jonathan is in another location with an extra thousand… So even if Jonathan could arrive in time the Israelites would still be outnumbered by more than 30,000 men. And this is where Saul made his first mistake. He was looking at the physical reality rather than the spiritual reality. Because the thing is – it made absolutely no difference how many troops the Philistines had – if God be for you – who can be against you? Sauls first problem here, and it leads to all the other problems… but his first problem was that he didn’t trust in the Lord. He didn’t trust in the Lord, he didn’t want to wait on the Lord, and so… he decided that he would just take matters into his own hands.
Listen Church – God is sovereign, and God is almighty, and God has a perfect plan, and you have got to trust that He is working all things together for good, to those who love Him and are the called, according to HIS purpose. And those people, that I mentioned just a little while ago, that I have seen shipwreck their faith – it almost always starts with this. They’d never say it initially, they’d never say, “Well I just don’t trust God in this.” In-fact; they’ll tell you that they do trust God, but their actions show that they don’t. And so, instead of trusting in the Lord, and waiting upon the Lord, they decide that it’s up to them to act.
That’s exactly what King Saul does here. Samuel hasn’t shown up, so Saul decides that it’s time to take matters into his own hands. And he goes against what God’s Word clearly says. He basically justifies it in his own mind. “I’ve got to do something here! I’ve got to take control of my own destiny.” That’s a complete lack of faith, and it leads to him sinning, and disobeying God’s clear commands from Scripture. And wouldn’t you know it… right after Saul does this; right after he makes a sacrifice, Samuel comes walking up.
And from that point onward, Saul slip by degrees. A little here, a little there, further and further away from God. Romans chapter one actually sheds some light on this for us. It explains to us, that as man begins to reject God, God will begin to pull His hands back away from that person. And as God pulls His hands away from that person, that person is given over to more and more of their sin nature. Their thinking will become darkened, their judgment will be clouded, their behavior will become more and more sinful, their thoughts will be more and more sinful. Their minds become darkened, their hearts become darkened, and what they perceive to be wisdom, is actually foolishness and wickedness, and they slip into more and more rebellion and sin, until ultimately, it’s too late.
Turn with me over a few chapters, to 1 Samuel 15:1-35 (READ).
So what can we learn from all of this? Well I do think there are some lessons we can take from all of this. First of all, notice that OBEYING God is actually held higher than worshiping God. Verse 22 says, “… Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” So God says through Samuel that God is more interested in our obedience than He is in sacrifice… why is that? Well remember what Jesus says in John 14? John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, YOU WILL keep my commandments.” And in John 14:21 He says, “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me…”
Obedience to God, shows our love for God. Sin and disobedience towards God, shows that we love self. You know, a lot of folks, especially now days, like the whole “experience”, the emotionalism… the songs, and the emotional fever. You know… I often hear a commercial on the radio, and it goes like this, “Why do you like “such and such church”?” And a person says, “Oh, I love the music, and the atmosphere.” And another person says, “I love the worship experience.” No one says in that commercial, that they love Jesus, or the Word of God, or anything like that… it’s all about the so called “worship experience.”
OBEDIENCE DISPLAYS OUR LOVE FOR GOD – Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” If you love Him, you will worship, truly worship. You will evangelize and share the Gospel. You will gather with the Church – that’s a commandment… You will repent of sin. You will obey God in your marriage, and at your job, and in life… That’s not to say you won’t ever sin, but when you do, you’ll be quick to repent of it.
You can wear an outward religious cloak all day long, but obedience is the proof of loving God!
Now look at verse 23 here, “For rebellion is as the sin of divination.” Divination – that’s witchcraft. Samuel says the person who is in rebellion against God, is committing a sin in the same vein as witchcraft. Saul wanted to do his thing – he wanted to go his way. He didn’t want to do it God’s way. He didn’t want to wait upon the Lord to bring His will to pass. Saul wanted his own will to come to pass.
And the ESV here says, “Presumption is as iniquity and idolatry”, but in the original Hebrew it says “Stubbornness” is as iniquity and idolatry. Basically what has happened here is that Saul, in his stubborn refusal to obey God, and in his stubborn refusal to trust in God, and in his stubborn refusal to wait upon God, and do it God’s way, has fallen into terrible sin. He’s no better than a witch and idol worshiper. And he even consults with a witch later on.
This is just another part of Saul, slipping by degrees. He begins seeking counsel and advice from the ungodly and the wicked. He doesn’t want to hear what God has to say. He doesn’t want to listen to it and obey it, he’d rather go to the ungodly, because they’re not going to call him out for sin.
And you notice what happens to him? Samuel says, “Because of this – Because you have rejected the clear teachings of God’s Word, God is rejecting you as king.”
And what ultimately happens to King Saul? He commits suicide – that’s what happens. He becomes a man who has rejected God, a man without hope, a man consumed by his arrogance and pride… and as much as he chose not to retain God in his knowledge, God gave him over, and he slipped further and further into total depravity, until finally there was nothing left other than hopelessness and despair. He ends up being tormented by demonic oppression, and ultimately, he took his own life.
Church… God recorded this in His Word for our benefit. Remember 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
What a frightening lesson this teaches.
Do not be deceived. A person can claim all day long that they are a Christian, but if they are in rebellion to God, and to the clear teachings and commands of God’s Word, they are in danger. A person can claim all day long that they are a Christian, but if they are associating with the worldly, and getting counsel from the ungodly, and heeding the advice of the wicked, they are in danger.
A person can claim all day long that they are a Christian, but if they refuse to repent and turn from sin, they are in danger.
Test yourself to see whether or not you are in the faith. Ask God to search your heart, and reveal the sin that’s there. And repent when He does. I pray that all of our hearts would be truly found in Christ, and in Christ alone, because He is our only hope of salvation.
LETS PRAY
